Fantastic post. You've made a lot of points that I had been thinking about. I was especially glad you pointed out his education and the fact that the number of times he stumbles on words is a lot lower than it would seem from how often it arises in fic. ( I'd be interested in a count, actually, but I don't have time to go back and watch all the eps at the moment. But I've always thought DS fandom could use one of those stats pages that someone compiled for The Sentinel that included things like how many times Jim dropped his gun, how many times you saw white socks on either guy, etc.)
Without trying to come up with some canon reason for the verbal stumbling? I really just think that one or more of the writers thought these little verbal gaffes were the height of humor. It always makes me cringe, and seems mostly like sloppiness in the script. The worst example to me is in Mountie and Soul, when he stumbles over the street name, calling it Vacuum St, rather than Hoover St. Is this supposed to be humor? It's a joke a toddler would make. Am I really to believe that Ray is so flaky? Because I really don't and that line makes me gnash my teeth every time. That ep also has Ray stumbling over the word diuretic and not knowing what it is, which seems unrealistic to me as well. Even Burning Down the House has Ray stumbling over a basic word and concept that most educated people, especially someone in law enforcement, would know--accellerant. So why do the canon writers DO that? I see it as a trend overall in the show that Fraser always has to have the answer, always has to have the key to solving the case, always has to be the one to suggest the next step, know the next piece of knowledge, etc. And that is one strength that fanfic has over canon, IMO. Things come out much more balanced, and they both allowed to be competent, brave, smart, heroic, scared, lonely, etc.
I also hate the word gaffe as a joke, because they stick it on to more than one character...Ray K, Frannie, and Dewey all have to bumble around like idiots over words ("Frost HEAVE" and "culling the herd" for Dewey, and "sliver me timbers" and about a million others for Frannie.) It makes me even pissier when I realize that the other two characters are supposed to be, well, forgive me for saying it, but kind of dumb. I don't think Frannie is dumb, but it is clear that the writers sometimes thought so, and thought it was hilarious. Dewey is a pretty shallow character, and an easy target for dumb as well. So how much does it piss me off to feel like some of the writers, some of the time, thought my beloved Ray was dumb? Well, it pretty much makes steam come out my ears. It makes me have to go read more fanfic and give buckets of feedback and love to those who understand Ray.
As to my own fanon about Ray and the word stumbles. Of course, I have internalized the thing about his brain racing ahead, and that seems fine, but I've always felt like it goes farther, to some self consciousness he has, and to his background. An earlier commenter here mentioned that Ray is a reader. I was delighted to see that, because I have always thought that, too. Ray comes from a background of two working class parents who wanted him to better himself, and that to me is suggestive of someone who would be likely to have a lot of coping strategies to figure out the world, including looking things up and reading outside of school. We know he didn't have a lot of academic success in regular school, but I can see him trying to figure out things by imitation, by reading, etc. If he picked up a word he hadn't heard before in conversation with someone, he may have had trouble memorizing it. If he picked up a new word through reading it in a magazine or book, he might not know how to pronounce it, having never heard it spoken aloud.
Do we have direct canon that Ray attended college, or is that pure fanon? I do believe that Ray went to college, and I happen to think he probably graduated, which doesn't seem to be the consensus. I guess I feel this way, because it would be so difficult to rise to detective without a college degree in this day.
Terrific essay. You picked great examples and covered so much.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2007-07-06 06:15 pm (UTC)Without trying to come up with some canon reason for the verbal stumbling? I really just think that one or more of the writers thought these little verbal gaffes were the height of humor. It always makes me cringe, and seems mostly like sloppiness in the script. The worst example to me is in Mountie and Soul, when he stumbles over the street name, calling it Vacuum St, rather than Hoover St. Is this supposed to be humor? It's a joke a toddler would make. Am I really to believe that Ray is so flaky? Because I really don't and that line makes me gnash my teeth every time. That ep also has Ray stumbling over the word diuretic and not knowing what it is, which seems unrealistic to me as well. Even Burning Down the House has Ray stumbling over a basic word and concept that most educated people, especially someone in law enforcement, would know--accellerant. So why do the canon writers DO that? I see it as a trend overall in the show that Fraser always has to have the answer, always has to have the key to solving the case, always has to be the one to suggest the next step, know the next piece of knowledge, etc. And that is one strength that fanfic has over canon, IMO. Things come out much more balanced, and they both allowed to be competent, brave, smart, heroic, scared, lonely, etc.
I also hate the word gaffe as a joke, because they stick it on to more than one character...Ray K, Frannie, and Dewey all have to bumble around like idiots over words ("Frost HEAVE" and "culling the herd" for Dewey, and "sliver me timbers" and about a million others for Frannie.) It makes me even pissier when I realize that the other two characters are supposed to be, well, forgive me for saying it, but kind of dumb. I don't think Frannie is dumb, but it is clear that the writers sometimes thought so, and thought it was hilarious. Dewey is a pretty shallow character, and an easy target for dumb as well. So how much does it piss me off to feel like some of the writers, some of the time, thought my beloved Ray was dumb? Well, it pretty much makes steam come out my ears. It makes me have to go read more fanfic and give buckets of feedback and love to those who understand Ray.
As to my own fanon about Ray and the word stumbles. Of course, I have internalized the thing about his brain racing ahead, and that seems fine, but I've always felt like it goes farther, to some self consciousness he has, and to his background. An earlier commenter here mentioned that Ray is a reader. I was delighted to see that, because I have always thought that, too. Ray comes from a background of two working class parents who wanted him to better himself, and that to me is suggestive of someone who would be likely to have a lot of coping strategies to figure out the world, including looking things up and reading outside of school. We know he didn't have a lot of academic success in regular school, but I can see him trying to figure out things by imitation, by reading, etc. If he picked up a word he hadn't heard before in conversation with someone, he may have had trouble memorizing it. If he picked up a new word through reading it in a magazine or book, he might not know how to pronounce it, having never heard it spoken aloud.
Do we have direct canon that Ray attended college, or is that pure fanon? I do believe that Ray went to college, and I happen to think he probably graduated, which doesn't seem to be the consensus. I guess I feel this way, because it would be so difficult to rise to detective without a college degree in this day.
Terrific essay. You picked great examples and covered so much.